California's capital city has become a little more Hollywood since the Terminator took office. But this sleepy town on the banks of the Sacramento and American Rivers still falls far short of being a single's paradise, slipping ten places in our ranking this year. It's much easier to get married than it is to have fun as a single person here, residents say. San Francisco, just an hour and a half away, tends to suck away the hipper and more driven singles. Sacramento's singles want a slower pace and a more affordable atmosphere, where the cover to see a live band at downtown club Old Ironsides is less than $10 and beers often go for $4. Many of the singles who live there are students at the University of California at Davis, at California State University-Sacramento (known as Sac State), or at the four community colleges. Non-students are typically legislative aides or state employees, living mainly downtown, where dive-bars abound. Well-attended meeting places include the True Love coffee house and the Distillery and Press Club bars for live music. Because there's precious little high culture there, singles flock to Kings games and to see the Rivercats, the local Triple-A farm team for the Oakland A's. Outdoor concerts in downtown's Cesar Chavez Park are also popular. Some locals say the best way to enjoy Sacramento is to leave town. Many people keep boats, and both Lake Tahoe and Reno are close by. Even the new Governor doesn't live here; he camps out in a hotel while his family remains in L.A. —Chana Schoenberger

Methodology: Our overall ranking is based on the sum of the rankings within seven separate categories for the 40 biggest U.S. metros. The data used to create these rankings came from Forbes, the U.S. Census, ACCRA, Woods & Poole, AOL City Guides/Digital City, Richard Florida and Kevin Stolarick, Catalytix and Carnegie Mellon University.The first six categories are given equal weight, while the buzz factor is given less weight.

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